This invention relates to an apparatus for playing a strategy game, and in particular a game involving the alignment of pegs or other indicia in a straight line pattern or other optional, pre-specified pattern.
A wide variety of competitive games and gaming devices requiring strategy or mental skill are known and are used for entertainment or intellectual stimulation. One well known strategy game is chess, which game requires a number of different and distinct playing pieces for each player and there are different rules for the movement of each type of playing piece. Another strategy game wherein the playing pieces, at least initially, for each player are identical is checkers which is played normally with flat circular disks on a playing surface having rows of squares of alternating colors. A very simple strategy game that can be played with pencil and paper is known as x's and o's or tic-tac-toe. This game can be uninteresting as in many cases there is no winner. Also the player who has the first move has a significant advantage.
A more recent strategy game is one being manufactured and sold under license from Ned Strongin Creative Services and is a game known as Tac-Tic-Turn. This game has a square playing surface which is filled with nine square tiles arranged in three rows. Each tile has four recesses formed in its top to receive a possible four checkers. The object of the game is to be the first player to get a certain number of coloured checkers in a row vertically, horizontally or diagonally. Players take turns placing the colored checkers on the board. Each player has the option on his turn of placing another checker on the board or turning a tile 90 degrees.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,588,113 issued June 28, 1971 to John Nelson describes a strategy game that employs a board with three concentric, rotatable rings mounted in the top of the board. Each ring can be locked in any one of four equally angularly spaced positions. Four indentical "tic-tac-toe" patterns made up of nine peg holes each are formed by the alignment of the rings. Pegs or markers are placed in the holes and the resulting patterns can be changed by rotation of the rings.
The game devices of the present invention can be quite simple in their structure but they can provide a very challenging and competitive game of strategy.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a game apparatus involving the alignment of three or more indicia, markers or pegs in a straight line or other optional, pre-specified pattern, which apparatus can require considerable skill to play well.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a novel game apparatus which in one form employs at least three circular peg receptacles rotatably mounted on a support base, each receptacle having peg-receiving holes equally spaced from adjacent holes about the periphery of the receptacle.